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Flash Sync speed

So I'm one day away from owning a phottix flash trigger. Found a retailer letting it go for a cheap price...which is good enough for me. Anyway I saw this video http://www.viddler.com/explore/ziser/videos/56/20/ where it explained how the sync speed effects the flash and how a faster shutter speed results in the light fall towards the lower end of the picture..... But the same does not happen when the flash is mounted on the camera...i.e the light fall is equal at all corners as I increase the shutter speed....why is that?? Can I possibly have the same effect with the external flash??

If you don't get a black bar across the bottom of your images with the Speedlite attached, it's probably shooting in High Speed Sync mode. High Speed Sync is only available with E-TTL hot shoe flashes that support it. It's not available on manual flashes.

You know you're in High Speed Sync when there's a little H with a lightning bold next to it on your flash LCD.

I know what high speed sync is...that's the only mode that lets me shoot with a SS faster than 1/200...
E-TTL mode is auto mode if I'm right??? or have I got the concepts wrong...

I was shooting in manual mode with the high speed sync mode....As I would want to use the flash as fill flash outdoors, a SS of 1/200 is useless as I need a minimum of at least 1/500 at f5.6 to get proper exposed shots without a blown out background

I know what high speed sync is...that's the only mode that lets me shoot with a SS faster than 1/200...
E-TTL mode is auto mode if I'm right??? or have I got the concepts wrong...

I was shooting in manual mode with the high speed sync mode....As I would want to use the flash as fill flash outdoors, a SS of 1/200 is useless as I need a minimum of at least 1/500 at f5.6 to get proper exposed shots without a blown out background

Right. I was answering your question of WHY you don't get the black bar problem with the hot shoe flash. It's because of High Speed Sync.

E-TTL is only when it says E-TTL on the flash LCD. That's not to say there aren't flashes out there that don't display E-TTL when they are indeed in E-TTL, but to keep it simple I'm just going to talk about your specific flash, the 430EX. There are way too many flashes out there with way too many feature sets to address them all.

Anyway, there are some wireless systems coming to market now that let you keep using E-TTL and I presume that means you'd also have high speed sync available as well. There are only two brands so far that I know of though, and they're relatively expensive. One is the RadioPopper and the other is new from PocketWizard called the FlexTT5 (transciever) and MiniTT1 (transmitter). RadioPopper seems to be vaporware though...I don't know of anyone who actually has a set, and yet they announced a new version of each model on their website.

So when in Manual mode...and when mounted on a trigger...why isn't the high speed sync available even though it is available when the flash is mounted on the camera...any idea??

Pocket wizards(which are available here) support TTL...will that help in any way to get high speed sync??

Also...how do you shoot outdoors with a flash on a sunny day???

Btw Thanks a lot...I know I ask tooo many questions...

I'm assuming you mean "Manual Mode" on the flash rather than "Manual Mode" on the camera.

If so, it's because Manual Mode on the flash is not E-TTL. You're only in E-TTL if you're playing around with Flash Exposure Compensation. There are only two systems that support E-TTL and it's associated goodies when off-camera...and those generic receivers aren't one of them!

The flash needs to communicate with the camera to give you E-TTL. Those generic receivers (and most others on the planet except the two I mentioned previously) are simple devices that only fire the flash...nothing more. Turn on your flash. Take a paper clip and open it up straight. Touch the bottom center pin with one end of the paper clip and the side of the foot with the other end of the paper clip. See what happens. That's what the simple triggers are doing, except only when you tell it to (by tripping the shutter on your camera) and for a split second. That's ALL they're doing. There is no intelligent communication that E-TTL and all it's goodies requires.

So when the flash is mounted on the camera....high speed sync is available even though E-TTL is not active (I'm assuming manual mode is not E-TTL as it does not say show on my flash)...but when the same flash is mounted on a trigger, high speed sync is not available...that's is what I am wondering...unless as you said, the triggers only trigger the flash burst and that my flash is one of those that are in E-TTL mode at all times even when it is not displayed...am I getting this right???

So unless I have those two brands of triggers...I can't use my flash off camera in situations when I need a shutter speed of more than 1/200....that really sucks!!!

What about the Canon ST-E2....apart from the line of sight rule to be followed, is it any good??

Also we get those hot shoe cords manufactured by nissin, are they worth the hassle (apart from the limitation of having a range of about 1 meter) cause some wedding photographer who was at a recent photography event loved his Nikon cord ...??